Bet Tzedek Legal Services - The House of Justice

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Founded in 1974, Bet Tzedek Legal Services states that its mission is to ensure "equal justice for all." A non-profit public-interest law firm, Bet Tzedek, "The House of Justice" in Hebrew, provides free legal services to low-income, disabled and elderly residents of Los Angeles County. Each year, Bet Tzedek staff and volunteers serve more than 10,000 clients of all racial and religious backgrounds with critical legal needs, principally in the areas of consumer law, housing issues, workplace matters, elder care and Holocaust reparations.

Contents

[edit] History

Bet Tzedek Legal Services - The House of Justice
Founded 1974, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Area served Los Angeles County
Focus Public Benefit: Advocacy and Civil Rights
Method Pro-Bono, Legal Aid, Education
Website www.bettzedek.org/

Bet Tzedek was founded in 1974 by a few individuals who sought to act upon a central tenet of Jewish law and tradition, which appears in the Bible: "Tzedek, tzedek tirdof - Justice, justice you shall pursue." This doctrine decrees that it is the duty of all men and women to advocate the just causes of the poor and helpless.[1] Consistent with this mandate, Bet Tzedek recognizes their duty to serve the entire Los Angeles community. Since their founding in 1974, Bet Tzedek has provided assistance to all eligible needy residents of Los Angeles County, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity.[1] The following timeline outlines major events shaping Bet Tzedek Legal Services' history since opening their doors in 1974:[2]

  • 1976 - Bet Tzedek receives a seed grant of $23,000 from the Jewish Federation, enabling it to expand its services.
  • 1977 - In just three years, Bet Tzedek grows to serve 1,000 clients annually.
  • 1981 - Bet Tzedek launches the City LAWS Program with a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Aging to send attorneys to senior centers to help older clients with their legal needs.
  • 1981 - With multi-year funding from the Milken Family Foundation, Bet Tzedek opens a second office in North Hollywood to serve the SanFernando Valley and to address growing community needs.
  • 1984 - Bet Tzedek wins a landmark decision that helps thousands of needy Holocaust survivors living in the Unived States. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rules in favor of Bet Tzedek client and childhood Holocaust survivor, Felicia Grunfeder, who was denied disability benefits because she received a small reparations payment. After multiple appeals, the federal courts rule that reparations payments cannot preclude disability payments.
  • 1987 - After four years of litigation arising from repeated attempts to evict the elderly long-time residents of Venice, California's Cadillac Hotel, Bet Tzedek negotiates a settlement that guarantees residents the right to remain in a refurbished Cadillac Hotel for the rest of their lives, at their current low rents.
  • 1989 - Bet Tzedek forms a Home Equity Fraud Task Force in response to a rising epidemic of con artists stealing homes of elderly homeowners.
  • 1991 - Bet Tzedek sues a national HMO alleging fraud and deceptive sales practices in the HMO’s solicitation of elderly Spanish-speaking enrollees. Ensuing media coverage prompts a federal investigation and a stockholder suit against the company and Bet Tzedek successfully settles the underlying case.
  • 1992 - With a grant from the federal Health Resources Service Agency, Bet Tzedek Legal Services joins the Alzheimer’s Association in establishing the El Portal Project, a consortium dedicated to serving Spanish-speaking families who care for a family member with Alzheimer’s Disease.
  • 1992 - A week of rioting takes 55 lives and causes $785 million in property damage in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four LAPD officers charged with the beating of Rodney King. L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley commends Bet Tzedek for providing services during and after civil unrest. Advocates continue to see clients at senior centers in the central city during the riots.
  • 1994 - Following the l994 Northridge earthquake, Bet Tzedek establishes an Earthquake Services Unit and assists more than 3,000 earthquake victims with housing issues, home improvement fraud, and FEMA claims.
  • 1994 - Bet Tzedek hires a full-time attorney to increase its efforts in combating substandard housing. The Housing Conditions Project advocates for low-income families living in slum conditions through litigation and public policy advocacy.
  • 1995 - A Bet Tzedek investigation reveals widespread violations of both state and federal law in Los Angeles area nursing homes. As a result, Bet Tzedek sponsors legislation to establish a standardized admission contract. The proposed legislation later becomes state law.
  • 1996 - Bet Tzedek produces two training videos for prevention of home equity fraud that are used by California law enforcement, as well as by the Federal Trade Commission and the United States Justice Department.
  • 1997 - Three Bet Tzedek staff and Board members serve on the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Slum Housing, whose recommendations are passed by the Los Angeles City Council as the most comprehensive code program in local history. Bet Tzedek also wins significant victories against repeat slumlords, improving living conditions for many families.
  • 1998 - Bet Tzedek brings a major class-action suit with pro bono counsel against 16 European-based insurance companies refusing to honor insurance policies purchased by those who perished in the Holocaust.
  • 1999 - Bet Tzedek settles a nine-year-old lawsuit against Hillhaven, one of the largest nursing home chains in the country, with the company agreeing to change business practices that violate state and federal law and led to financial hardship for residents and their families.
  • 1999 - Using a series of local statutes to clear title and remove millions of dollars in liens, Bet Tzedek represents more than 100 tenants of an abandoned downtown building, clearing the way for a new owner to acquire and rehab the building.
  • 2000 - Bet Tzedek establishes the Kinship Care Project to assist relative caregivers who are custodians, legal guardians or adoptive parents to minor children. Bet Tzedek helps secure health care, education and assists in formalizing the custodial relationships.
  • 2000 - Bet Tzedek and pro bono counsel settle a lawsuit with a motion picture producer over a five year motion picture option agreement to produce a motion picture about the life story of Irene Gut Opdyke, a “righteous gentile,” who had saved the lives of dozens of Jews during World War II. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice and all parties agreed that the producer did "nothing wrong."
  • 2001 - At a time when 61% of Los Angeles apparel contractors were violating wage and hour laws[2], Bet Tzedek opens the Employment Rights Project in the San Fernando Valley in response to the growing numbers of “working poor” in Los Angeles, who remain in poverty despite working full-time as garment workers, day laborers, domestics, carwash employees, and gardeners.

[edit] Services and Programs

Bet Tzedek's services include advice, counseling and representation at trials, administrative hearings, and appeals.[3] Bet Tzedek also offers educational programs to clients and other service providers. Services at Bet Tzedek are provided through the following programs:

[edit] Consumer Fraud

Bet Tzedek's Consumer Protection Unit litigates consumer fraud cases in a variety of areas, including home equity fraud, telemarketing, automobile financing, and health care marketing, and door-to-door sales. Additionally the Consumer Protection Unit provides educational programs throughout Los Angeles County to help residents recognize and avoid fraud. Bet Tzedek also collaborates with various law enforcement agencies and legal services providers to target the most notorious scam artists.[4]

[edit] Employment Rights

Bet Tzedek’s Employment Rights Project advocates on behalf of a variety of low-wage workers, including day laborers, domestic workers, and those working in the garment, construction, car wash, restaurant and janitorial industries. The Project represents low-wage workers, regardless of their immigration status, who have been illegally denied wages that they have earned.[5] Client services range from brief advice, counseling and informal advocacy, to representation in hearings before the California Labor Commissioner and litigation in state and federal courts.[5]

[edit] Family Caregiver Project

Janet Morris provides essential services to family caregivers.
Janet Morris provides essential services to family caregivers.

AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving estimate that 4.3 million adults in the State of California provide unpaid care to an adult relative or friend.[6] The total value of familycaregiving is estimated at $276 billion. Caregivers usually do not quit their jobs, or leave their personal relationships, to offer care to their relatives. The Family Caregiving Project at Bet Tzedek responds by providing expert legal counsel, advice and representation to English, Spanish and Chinese speaking adults who care for a loved-one afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia or other debilitating illnesses.

Director of the Bet Tzedek Legal Services Family Caregiver Project, Janet Moris, serves caregivers throughout Los Angeles County with essential education, referrals and legal services. Serving over 300 clients each year Morris is nationally regarded as one of the outstanding advocates and educators in this area of practice. Bet Tzedek Legal Services staff make presentations to over 2,000 family members, social workers, and service professionals annually.[6]

[edit] Government Benefits

Bet Tzedek represents clients on a range of state and federal government benefits, including Social Security, Medi-Cal, Medicare, SSI/Disability, in-home supportive services, Veterans’ Benefits, CalWORKS, food stamps, WIC and Adoption Assistance, KinGAP.[7] Bet Tzedek represents clients in appeals, helps clients to apply for benefits, and identifies appropriate programs.

[edit] Holocaust Reparations

Bet Tzedek Legal Services is the only agency in the world that offers free assistance to Holocaust survivors applying for reparations, pensions and other benefits from Germany and other European countries. Bet Tzedek also has been at the forefront on issues affecting all survivors, including Holocaust-era insurance coverage, the effect of reparations on eligibility for public benefits, and the waiver of wire transfer fees for survivors who receive reparations.[8]

[edit] Housing

The Housing Law Project provides legal assistance to tenants in Los Angeles County facing eviction actions and illegal housing conditions. The elderly and persons with disabilities are the focus of much of the service because they are often targeted for eviction in order to circumvent the rent stabilization laws and bring in new tenants at higher rents. The project’s attorney represents these clients, develops solutions to systematic housing legal problems, and recruits, trains, and supervises a network of volunteer attorneys.[9]

[edit] Sydney M. Irmas Housing Conditions Project

Bet Tzedek's Sydney M. Irmas Housing Conditions Project is underwritten by a grant from the Irmas Family Foundation to help low-income families secure safe, affordable housing. In 2001, the Irmas Project brought landmark litigation on behalf of tenants' rights group Inquilinos Unidos against one of the most notorious landlords in Los Angeles. The lawsuit was later joined by the Los Angeles City Attorney's office, and the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher served as pro bono counsel on the suit. This case represented a landmark victory in the battle against landlords who subject their tenants to substandard health and safety conditions and set a significant precedent in the ability of tenants' groups to successfully prosecute owners attempting to hide behind a web of business identities. [10]

[edit] Eviction Defense Project

The Eviction Defense Project at Bet Tzedek Legal Servicesprovides expert advice, counsel and representation those in need of assistance. Bet Tzedek accepts eviction cases on an individual basis, and screens all cases for merit. Annually, Bet Tzedek serves as counsel for 100 families who face illegal eviction from their apartments, with a success rate of over 90 percent.[10]

[edit] Kinship Care

Kinship Care Program clients
Kinship Care Program clients

When parents are unavailable or unable to care for their children, grandparents often step in to provide a loving home and to keep their loved ones safe from the emotional turmoil of foster care placements. Bet Tzedek Legal Services created the Kinship Care Project in 2002 to address the needs of the more than 88,000 children in Los Angeles County who live with their grandparents. The Kinship Care Project offers a variety of services to grandparents and others who are raising their young family members. [11] For the last five years, Bet Tzedek has offered free and expert legal services to these families, who are poor and struggle to provide decent housing, education, and health care for these forgotten or abandoned young children.[11]

Bet Tzedek’s Kinship Care Project is unique in Los Angeles County, as no other service provider focuses on this population. The assistance offered by Bet Tzedek Legal Services keeps children out of the foster care system, and ensures that all available government benefits are accessed, that health care is provided, and that rights to decent and safe housing are preserved. Additionally, Bet Tzedek Legal Services published Southern California’s first comprehensive guide for relative caregivers, Caring for a Relative’s Child. The guide is available in both English and Spanish, and is the primary resource of its kind used by social workers throughout Los Angeles County.[11]

[edit] Nursing Home Advocacy Project

The Nursing Home Advocacy Project (NHAP) has been a signature program that has shaped the development of Bet Tzedek’s nationally regarded elderlaw practice. The project was established in response to a critical need for effective legal assistance for frail, elderly residents of nursing homes.[12] Today, Bet Tzedek aggressively works to improve the quality of care for the institutionalized elderly and provides legal protection against abuse and neglect through advice, education, advocacy, and litigation. Among the many milestones in NHAP’s history are:

  • Comprehensive legislation to reform admissions and discharge practices and financial responsibility and billing practices by nursing homes.[12]
  • A landmark study of Los Angeles County nursing homes, which brought to light serious noncompliance with state and federal regulations and prompted the passage of reform legislation
  • Major litigation against a national nursing home chain for fraudulent admissions contracts, resulting in sweeping national changes.

NHAP has published the following consumer guides: The Nursing Home Companion (in English and Spanish); If Only I Had Known: Misrepresentations Made by Nursing Homes (published with a grant from the Archstone Foundation), and How to Get Care From a Residential Care Facility. Over 200,000 copies of these guides have been distributed nationally, and they remain the first resource consulted by ombudspersons throughout California.[12]


[edit] Senior Legal Services

For more than two decades, Bet Tzedek has comprehensively served the legal needs of low-income seniors in Los Angeles. Because of their expertise, Bet Tzedek is the exclusive provider of free legal services to low-income seniors through contracts with the City and County of Los Angeles.[13] Bet Tzedek staff includes specialists on the legal issues that affect seniors - consumer fraud and elder abuse, nursing homes and residential care facilities, public benefits, family and kinship caregiver needs, and housing — and Bet Tzedek staff regularly meets with clients at more than 30 senior centers in Greater Los Angeles County. In addition to providing one-on-one services, Bet Tzedek has developed four new legal clinics designed to help seniors help themselves. Each clinic provides an overview of a particular legal issue and guides seniors in the preparation of the appropriate legal documents.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b About Bet Tzedek. Bet Tzedek Legal Services. Retrieved on June 5, 2007.
  2. ^ a b Lobaco, Gina. Thirtieth Annual Report (PDF). Bet Tzedek Legal Services. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
  3. ^ Bet Tzedek Programs. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
  4. ^ Consumer Fraud. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
  5. ^ a b Employment Rights Project. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
  6. ^ a b Family Caregiver Project. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
  7. ^ Public Benefits. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
  8. ^ Holocaust Reparations. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
  9. ^ Equal Access Fund Projects. Retrieved on June 5, 2007.
  10. ^ a b Housing. Retrieved on June 4, 2007.
  11. ^ a b c Kinship Care Program. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
  12. ^ a b c Nursing Home Advocacy Project. Retrieved on June 5, 2007.
  13. ^ Free Legal Services for Seniors in Los Angeles County. Retrieved on June 5, 2007.